The Friday following the Thanksgiving holiday, for many it’s a day filled with standing in line, braving the cold, and fighting the crowds to save a few bucks on electronics. What if I told you that there was a much better way to spend your day? Payette Brewing’s “Black Friday” is day filled with a possibilities and incredible beers from around the region! You can sate your need for deals with a few minutes online in the morning before you head out to enjoy the a breathtaking selection of Stouts and Porters that will delight your palate and ensnare the spirit. Ok, ok, that may be a little deep, but seriously… this event and theses beers are worth blocking out the day on your calendar and shipping the kids off to the grandparents so you can maximize your experience.

This year, Payette Brewing hosted the event at their new facility in downtown Boise off River Street. Since the building is still being renovated, a large tent was erected in the parking lot filled with tables, music, lights, and thankfully a generator nearby to provide power and some heat! To say that it was cold out is an understatement. To say that the generator was unruly is too kind, especially for those employees & volunteers who were on-site getting everything ready hours before the event started. I arrived at 10, an hour before the “League of Outlaws” members early access and you couldn’t miss the frost that was forming on the inside of the tent walls. Once things really got hopping around 1:00 there was enough heat inside from the heaters and warm bodies that the ambient temps were getting bearable although we had some intermittent rain from all that melting frost. By that time however, I don’t think anyone noticed… or cared. There were simply to many people to talk to and way too many beers to dive into….

Beer festivals! These two magic words can make a beer lovers knees quiver. Sadly, in Boise, we’ve been without a honest to goodness beer festival for the past few years as costs, permitting and other issues with the city brought about their untimely demise. Last year, I was fortunate enough to attend (and volunteer) at the inaugural Boise Brewing Hoptober Freshtival (read about it here). The initial event in 2014 brought out mostly local brewers to a central location (5th & Broad St) in front of the Boise Brewing brewery. Beer lovers heard the call and purchased their $25 tickets and received a taster mug (roughly 5oz) and were treated to unlimited tasters until the beer was gone or until 8pm.

This year, the Hoptober Freshtival was bigger and better in all the ways that count. Instead of 13 breweries we had 25+ for a total of more than 50 tap handles to choose from. All the local players were on hand and some regional breweries made the trip up as well, including Fort George, Deschutes, & Mazama Brewing. Sadly, we did loose the “all you can drink” component due to permitting changes with the city, but that may have been for the best. Who wouldn’t get into trouble at an All You Can Drink craft beer event? The new system offered attendees their taster mug and 20 tickets which, if fully redeemed, would equate to 80+ oz of beer. Still, a pretty damn good deal for a $25 ticket ($30 at the door). Once again, Broad Street between 4th & 5th was blocked off in front of Boise Brewing. At noon, with people lined up along the fence, the gates opened and people started filing inside….

One thing we all have in common, if you’re reading this post, is an affinity for craft beer. Now, that craft beer that you’re imbibing may have come fresh from the tap, out of a can, or maybe even out of a bottle. If you need to crack open a bottle in style, you have no shortage of options from classic, cheap grocery store bottle openers, bic lighters, or even crowd funded aluminum/titanium constructs. But if you like to show off your bottle opening prowess by breaking out the BIG GUNS, Bullets2Bandages has you covered in spades with a .50 Caliber opener that will kill any beer you throw at it. (Disclaimer, I do not recommend that you throw the .50 caliber opener at your beer to open it… but if you do please record it and send me the link).

Bullets2Bandages makes these from once fired, military grade brass casings and demilitarized projectiles. Each shell is then notched (so that it can free your beer from its glass prison), polished, and painted/engraved depending on the opener ordered. As a veteran owned business, they donate at least 15% of their profits to various veteran charities. I think that’s worth noting, always nice to be able to get great tools & or toys and support worthy causes at the same time!

The model that I received to test out for this review is a matte black with IdahoBrewReview emblazoned on the side. On the off chance that you haven’t gotten up close and personal with a .50 caliber shell lately, these are substantial, measuring 5.5″ long. Leverage against even the most stubborn cap is never lacking. The size and weight are very good. While opening is handled with ease, the .50 Caliber Opener does make a slight, but noticeable, crease in the cap. If you’re just going to go throw the cap away, this is a non-issue. If you keep/collect your caps and want them to remain as pristine as possible this may be troubling. Personally, I keep one cap from each brewery for my BottleCapMap, who said beer can’t be art? The folks at B2B do offer a Bourbon Barrel 7.62mm Bullet Bottle Opener which I have heard gets the job done without any creasing on your cap. No personal experience with that yet though. Hopefully I can get my hands on one and do an opener breakdown between 3-5 custom openers… but I digress.

This opener is a strong performer and a definite conversation starter making it a staple for your bar at home and would contribute handsomely if you have a display area where you keep your other beer accessories like growlers, pint glasses and snifters. Due to the size and shape of these rounds, carrying it about town in your pocket is probably going to be a little uncomfortable if not down right impractical. That said, how often are you out on the town opening your own bottles…?

My only complaint is a minor one, but centers on the bullet shape. If stored horizontally, and not contained, this is going to roll about. Storing vertically is preferred to ensure it stays where you put it, but at over 5″ tall it’s not going to fit in a drawer. I would love to see the installation of a magnet inside the casing so that it could be stored horizontally on the side of your favorite beer fridge. This minor issue aside, the .50 Caliber bottle opener is both an excellent opener and an eye catching conversation starter that comes in a wide variety of finishes to suit your individual taste.

On a surprisingly hot day in late September 2015 10 Barrel Brewing put together a blind IPA tasting event dubbed “Beer Wars” in the parking lot behind the brewery in downtown Boise. While you may not be expecting to melt into the asphalt under a blistering afternoon so close to October; those in attendance were rewarded for their stamina and perseverance with a wealth of IPA goodness from around the West.

Now, I was expecting that the beers would be hidden, but I didn’t expect to be in the dark on which states the taps were from. The scenario that we found upon entering after purchasing our tulip and tokens were five stations, each with six tap handles with absolutely no identifying marks. The only information given to us was that each station represented a state. The states on hand were Washington, Oregon, California, Boise and last (but not least) the rest of Idaho. As a lover of beer this would have been a wonderful adventure to try to discern the various states and narrow down the respective beers from each had I been free to stay for the entire event. Having only an hour or so to spend at Beer Wars due to other commitments, this completely blind scenario was disheartening. I love our Boise & Idaho breweries with a passion, but it’s not every day that you can stroll up and grab Barley Browns, pFriem Family Brewers, Breakside Brewing, Backwoods Brewing, Silver City, Naked City, Green Flash, Ballast Point, 21st Amendment (just to name a few) on tap and at such a reasonable cost. I wanted to devote my time to exploring those beers that are harder to come by on tap here in Boise. But, what are you going to do.

The first order of business was to do a slow pass to see if there was any visible clue that could help my case. On this walk about, I caught sight of part of an uncovered keg which was plastered with a large Barley Browns sticker. Win! With no other visual clues I decided to pony up to what I was now sure was the Oregon tent and order my first beer. Beer in hand I retreat to a table and strike up a conversation with a few other beer lovers to compare notes and sip my beer. During my brief stint at beer wars I must say I met some great people, drank outstanding beer, and had a hell of a good (although far too short) a time. To my, and my tables credit, we were able to identify the California, Washington & Oregon tents… unfortunately, I was totally off on all my tap handle predictions. When you’re playing for these stakes though, even when you loose you win. 🙂 Beers that I ended up putting my hands on were Firestone Walker Double Jack, 21st Amendment Brew Free or Die, 10 Barrel Pearl IPA (From Portland), Breakside Wanderlust IPA, Boneyard Notorious IPA.

As the evening progressed the crowd increased substantially, at 7pm, all taps were revealed and the thirsty group gathered was able to drink to their hearts content, now knowing exactly which beers they’re drinking. I also heard that there were protesters, why I can’t imagine, across the street. Not that I need an excuse to drink good beer, but events like these seem to have a strong draw and give craft beer lovers around the valley the chance to get together, explore beers both local and regional while comparing notes and sharing beerventure tales.

New Belgium Brewing, not a name that requires much introduction for their wide variety of beer and of course the traveling Tour de Fat festival. This summer, on the evening before the bicycle parade and TdF festival, Radio Boise (our non-profit; community radio) hosted their annual Pre-Fat street party to raise money to support the station. This block party on 8th street between Idaho & Bannock from 4pm-11pm featured a variety of live music and Radio Boise DJ’s, street vendors, food, and of course beer.

I wanted to send a shout out New Belgium for donating all the beer, which was sold throughout the evening to raise funds for KRBX. As a volunteer, selling beer for four hours or so, I have to think that we must have sold (at least) a few thousand cans. At $5/each that adds up to a nice contribution to a local non-profit.

The evening went off without a hitch, as far as I could tell. The crowd was in good spirits, thirsty and the music was varied enough to keep the groove going. It’s always nice to see craft beer giving back and I see it it regularly on the local level, but to see large regional brewers step up to the plate as well is refreshing. Craft beer, from brewer to consumer continues to have a healthy sense of community that macro brew will never have; not to mention flavor and good beer.

Here is to the continuation of great beer, good people and incredible events.

On July 18th 2015 the brewing community in and around the Treasure Valley came together to support Kerry Thomas, head brewer at EDGE Brewing in Boise who was injured in a boil over accident. It has always been my impression that the competition in craft beer, at least here in the Treasure Valley, is pretty good natured and generally friendly. The wagons were circled to support one of their own from the get go.

In case you didn’t make it out to Prefunk for ‪#‎kegsforkerry‬ here are just a few of the things you missed. The crowd was of course, great and the turn out was pretty amazing. When I arrived a few minutes after 3pm there was already a line out the building of people waiting to get some beer. There was both a raffle (personally I didn’t win anything, but Rick & his wife Sarah cleaned house at the table we shared) and a silent auction. Auction items ran the gambit from a beach house stay in Oregon to gift certificates, growlers + fills, amazing beer packages, art and more.…

Take a moment and ponder your perfect day. Are you’re thinking about a sunny summer afternoon, 40+ regional brews on tap, live music and a bunch of beer lovers on hand? I know I am. If you’re up for a drive up North you should consider checking out the Moscow Alehouse Brewfest. If you’re not already familiar with Moscow (home of the University of Idaho), it’s a quaint college town about 5 hours North of Boise (just a few miles East of the Washington border & Washington State University) nestled in the rolling hills of the Palouse. Now, when I first rolled into town a few days before, my first stop was of course, Moscow Brewing. When you’re in the area I can’t recommend highly enough that you stop by, have a few pints and say hello. This nano brewery is a hotspot for beer drinkers to congregate, drink and talk beer. They start trickling in right at open (4pm) and by 5:00 or 5:30 you may find it hard to score a seat.

It’s no secret that I’m a beer lover who is still learning the finer points of the process involved in taking base ingredients like water, grains, hops, yeast and making them into something far more magical like Porters, Lagers, Ales, or IPA’s. Love to drink ’em, but couldn’t make much headway creating one at this point. That’s part of the beer adventure though, in my opinion anyway. One doesn’t have to be an authority to enjoy beer, or to have great conversations with other beer lovers here in the North West in my experience. If you saddle up to the bar at any brewery, order a beer and look to your right and left, chances are you’ll find one or more individuals who are happy to talk to you in great details about their love of beer and where you might like to explore yourself to get a taste of the local flavor.

This was exactly my experience at the RAM here in Boise when I was invited to spend the better part of a day in the back watching the process from start to finish. The only difference being that I wasn’t sitting at a bar with these gents, but I was darting back and forth to stay out from underfoot of head brewer Jake and his assistant Cody while getting the skinny on their beer and what it takes to keep both RAM’s fully stocked and ready to pour.

This past Sunday marked the inauguration of the 2015 League of Outlaws class at Payette Brewing. If you weren’t there or didn’t jump in to the league when you had the chance, I strongly suggest that you mark your calendar to take part next when it comes back around. Like so many brew related experiences in the greater Boise area, the thing that makes clubs like this so entertaining is that it brings a pretty diverse group together to meet, mingle, and be, under the common love for great beer.…

Well, the weekend is over, the bands have packed up and gone on their way home or off to other venues. But the biggest letdown of the entire weekend, for me at least, is the tear down of the tent that was Alefort. The most compelling part of the mini-beer festival within the larger Treefort Music Fest, in my opinion at least, was having such a diverse group of breweries (mostly local) that were all within a few feet of each other! …